Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• It Christmas Eve. Almost all offices are closed. Locat TV stations have a skeleton crew. The Messenger building is empty. There is no Update. But look who is the HWMISB. 
• I've never understood the news stations doing a Santa Radar showing Santa's sleigh filling up 1/3 of the screen. Why not make it a blip? Kids would actually get sucked in by that. 
• I don't care at all about the new Star Wars movie, but I can't avoid people arguing about it. But I've got a question. What's so great about J.J. Abrams? Look at this list. There's not a "great American movie" on it. (The cable friendly Joy Ride might be the most entertaining one on the list, and it's a low-budget guilty pleasure.)
  
• I used to do my Christmas shopping every year on the 23rd. It was just me. Then came along a wife and online shopping. I haven't been in a store at Christmas time in a decade.  And one of those has saved me a ton of money.
• Draining the Swamp update.
  
• Good thing Trump never uses the presidency for profit. You know, like Mar-a-Lago hosting an expensive dinner for a "non-profit" conservative group charging $2,500 a ticket. 
• Or that Biden's son Trump Jr.  is speaking for a fee simply because of his last name. 
• Or that "family values" isn't under attack since he's bringing his ex-Fox News girlfriend which he left his wife and five kids for. 
• Or that Fox News' Mark Levin is there to attack the media for being biased while being paid to support a political candidate. 
• Or that the lead speaker is Jerry Falwell Jr. who has endured a Pool Boy Scandal this year. 
• (Sure it's Christmas. But these folks should never, ever get a break.)
• Why did Ted Cruz decide to light a cigar and smoke it during his online video blasting the new spending bill? Attacking the bill is great, but why the cigar? Did he want to look like a Washington fat cat? He's smarter than that. 
  
• The next bullet point is completely wrong. I spent 10 minutes researching UTEP football before I wrote it. And why did I do that? I saw the graphic and thought they were talking about today's Hawaii Bowl. I'm an idiot. The graphic referred to a basketball game. (By the way, UTEP went 0-11 this season.)
• Everyone talks about Baylor's turnaround, but UTEP's season slipped past me. After going 0-12 and 1-11 the last two years, they went 8-3 this year and will play in a bowl game in Honolulu. 
  
• Ticket fans only: Speaking of online mistakes, Former Morning News TV critic Barry Horn tweeted this morning that the Cowboys next game in Washington will be the late game on Fox. So I thought I'd make a funny since the game is in Dallas.  He then deleted his tweet. Come on. Media guys are the most sensitive people in the world. 
  
• Tech Flashback: In 1994, I created a Microsoft Access Database for the DA's office. (I had just authorized, for the first time ever, a desktop for all employees with a server, and I was hell-bent on making the office as cutting edge as I could.) There was one problem: I designed the thing at home on my free time and the final file was so large that there was no way to move it. DVD drives didn't exist and, even though I had a CD burner, the new Access program wouldn't fit on a CD.  The solution? I had to go buy something that existed for only a blink of an eye in the tech world: A Zip Drive. (Pic below). It cost almost $200 and could write a file that held 100 megabytes. I was reminded of that this week when I bought a portable 1 terabyte hard drive for $50. (Side note: I bought the Zip Drive out of my pocket because I thought it was too extravagent of a purchase for the taxpayers. And you guys think I'm a liberal, huh?)
  
• Messenger: Above the Fold